Virginia hemp businesses to file court injunction to stop new restrictions on CBD products

An effort is underway to snuff out a restrictive redefinition of the types of CBD products that can be sold in Virginia.

A group of hemp businesses around the state announced plans to file an injunction in federal court to try to force a freeze on enforcement of a new regulatory definition of legal hemp products, which is slated to take effect in several weeks.

Currently in Virginia, a legal hemp product is one with a total THC concentration of no more than 0.3%. A legal hemp product must also have a max of 2 milligrams of total THC per package, or be sold in a package that features a 25:1 ratio of CBD to THC.

That 25:1 ratio is set to be eliminated on Aug. 15, thanks to a provision in the recently approved state budget, which also includes language to establish a recreational marijuana market in Virginia.

The removal of the 25:1 ratio would make many existing hemp-derived CBD products illegal once the amendment takes effect, and would deal a major blow to the state’s hemp industry, according to Barbara Biddle, owner of District Hemp in Northern Virginia who is expected to be a plaintiff in the planned legal action.

Biddle is also president of the Cannabis Small Business Association trade group, which isn’t planning to be a party to the action.

Biddle said Tuesday afternoon that the injunction was expected to be filed in a matter of days. She declined to discuss the details of the filing before its submission, but said that generally the goal is to at least pause the definition change to give companies more time to adjust their operations.

“We just need time to sort through that, so there’s not this devastating ripple effect that impacts not only business owners and their employees but all the vendors that work with them,” Biddle said in an interview, which followed a virtual meeting earlier in the day with industry members to discuss the legal action.

Former state senator Chap Petersen is representing the hemp businesses in their suit, Biddle said. Biddle declined to comment on who her fellow plaintiffs are, but said they included another retailer and some manufacturers.

Biddle said the injunction would be aimed squarely at the hemp definition change and wouldn’t attempt to affect the implementation of the broader marijuana retail market that’s being launched as part of the state budget that went into effect earlier this month. The redefinition of hemp products was included in legislation that passed the General Assembly earlier this year and was criticized by hemp business operators.

“We’re not trying to dismantle this new cannabis market, but we are trying to save businesses that have invested in the structure that Virginia built and told us to invest in. We want to make sure they don’t end up losing their livelihoods overnight,” she said.

The current hemp definition was established in 2023 and came as part of other regulatory changes for the CBD industry.

Legal recreational marijuana sales are set to start July 2027, which means there would be about a year-long period where CBD retailers wouldn’t be able to sell the products that are currently considered hemp, because they’re effectively going to be reclassified as marijuana on Aug. 15.

Hemp and marijuana are different varieties of the cannabis plant. Marijuana has higher levels of THC, which is the chemical that creates the high associated with using marijuana.

While it has been legal for adults to consume and possess small amounts of recreational marijuana since 2021, it remains illegal to sell recreational pot. The only legal avenue to get marijuana in Virginia is through the several medical cannabis companies that are allowed to operate in the state.

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